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COMBE, A PALEOLITHIC CAVE IN 
THE DORDOGNE 



By GEORGE GRANT MACGURDY 



l from the American Anthropologist (n.s.), Vol. XVI, No. 2, 
April-June, 19 14 



Lancaster Pa., U. S. A. 
The Naw Era Printing Company 
1914 



LC Control Number 



tmp96 026514 



MERICAN ANTHROPOIOUST 



•3, 



, S., VOL. 16, PL 



- w.r* j 




ENTRANCE TO 'LA COMBE' 



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LOOKING ACROSS THE VALLEV FROM LA COIVBE' 



Compliment; 

the Auiii^i. 

[Reprinted from the American Anthropologist, Vol. 16, No. 2, April-June, 19 14.] 




LA COMBE, A PALEOLITHIC CAVE IN THE DORDOGNE 
By GEORGE GRANT MACCURDY 

Introduction 

DURING the summer of 19 12, after having completed a tour of 
the paleolithic caves of France and Spain, I found myself 
in the picturesque little village of Les Eyzies with a desire 
to know more about troglodite culture and two or three weeks still 
at my disposal. I had always wanted to explore a Quaternary cave. 
Knowing this, Peyrony came to my rescue. Some five years 
previously he had made a sounding near the entrance to the small 
cave of La Combe (Dordogne) about one hour's walk to the south 
of Les Eyzies, and had found enough in the way of flint chips and 
bones to warrant further search. Moreover within the cave Peyrony, 
Peyrille, and young Casimir Mercier, son of the proprietor, had 
each found several specimens, including a bone point with cleft 
base, several perforated shells, and a polishing stone. The per- 
forated shells and polishing stone later came into possession of 
Professor Max Verworn of Bonn, Germany ; while I obtained through 
purchase from Peyrony and Mercier the bone point and a few flint 
implements. 

I obtained a lease of the cave, and with two workmen, Marcelin 
Berniche and Casimir Mercier, began excavations on August 5th. 
Our route lay southward. We crossed the Beune and paralleled 
the narrow valley of La Gaubere to its source near the village of 
La Mouthe, that gave its name to the cavern in which Quaternary 
mural art was discovered by Riviere in 1893. From La Mouthe a 

AM. ANTH., N. S., 16 — II I 57 



I58 AMERICAN ANTHROPOLOGIST [n. s., 16, 1914 

foot-path leads over a land elevation and down to the brink of a 
narrow valley, La Combe (meaning "little valley"), extending in a 
westerly direction and tributary to the Vezere, only a few kilometers 
distant. At this point the little valley is almost precipitous along 
its northern boundary. At the top of the escarpment and less than 
a hundred meters above the stream bed are a number of caves, one 
of which is called La Combe. It has a southwestern exposure and 
is on the property of Francois Mercier whose farmhouse is at the 
bottom of the valley trough. 

Berniche accompanied me from Les Eyzies where he had arrived 
the same morning from Les Combarelles some two kilometers to 
the east of Les Eyzies. It was his father who sold the cavern of 
Les Combarelles to the French Government for a national monu- 
ment after paleolithic engravings had been discovered on its walls. 
Berniche had to his credit a wide experience in cave exploration, 
having been employed in that capacity for more than twenty years. 
For the last four years he had worked for Dr Lalanne at the famous 
rock shelter of Laussel; he was in fact the lucky workman who 
uncovered the remarkable bas relief of the female holding a bison 
horn. 

On our arrival at La Combe a few lusty calls brought Casimir 
Mercier with his tools and the key to the cave; for the entrance 
had been walled up and the cave used as a storehouse. We began 
excavations outside the present limits of the cave proper and in 
line with the sounding made by Peyrony, who had sunk a pit to 
a depth of 1.6 meters. This pit we sank an additional 60 c, finding 
flint flakes, very few of which had been retouched. The deposit 
is dark yellow to reddish loam. At a depth of 2.2 m. we struck a 
pure, stratified sterile layer of sand of brighter yellow than the loam. 
A smaller pit was sunk in the sand 1.2 m., and a bar of iron was 
driven an additional 40 c. without reaching rock bottom. The 
sand deposit is of Tertiary age. The original pit was more than 
3 m. outside the shelter of the overhanging rock at the entrance to 
the cave. From this as a point of departure the deposits were 
removed section by section in the direction of the entrance. The 
stone wall (west of the door) and door that guarded the cave entrance 



A/ 31 



maccurdy] 



LA COMBE, A PALEOLITHIC CAVE 



I 59 



were finally removed so that the excavations might continue 
uninterrupted to and within the cave proper (pi. xn). 

The cave has a depth of 7 m., a width of 5 m., and a maximum 
height above the floor accumulations of some 2 m. It is the distal 
remnant of a cave that originally had a depth of about 30 m. The 
roof exposed to the surface had fallen in ages ago. A ground-plan 




Fig. 9. — Ground-plan of La Combe. (R, R, large rocks.) 



(fig. 9) will give at least a partial idea of the present and past history 
of the cave as well as its relation to the escarpment. The jambs of 
what was once the cave entrance are seen in the lower half of plate 
xii, which is a view looking across the valley of La Combe to the 
south. 

The section just outside the entrance to the cavern revealed the 
following components, beginning at the top: 

5. Surface soil .2 m. 

4. Yellow clay, Aurignacian industry .5 m. 

3. Yellow clay, Mousterian industry with coups de poing common .6 m. 
2. Reddish sandy clay, Archaic Mousterian industry with eolithic 

facies .5 m. 

1. Sands . . . Tertiary 

Both within the cave and outside the entrance foyers had been 
sunk by barbaric races. Not only because of the color but also on 



i6o 



AMERICAN ANTHROPOLOGIST 



[n. s., 16, 1914 



account of the presence of potsherds and post-paleolithic kitchen 
refuse these black hearths were easily distinguishable from the 
yellow Aurignacian deposits into which they were sunk. In one 
or two cases they penetrated even into the Mousterian layer proper, 
thus bringing potsherds in close contact with coups de poing. Some 
hearths were superposed on other older hearths. The pottery 
dates from the first to the eleventh century A. d. 

Archaic Mousterian 

To begin with the oldest industry, we found in the layer of red 
sandy clay many non-utilized flint chips and bone fragments. The 
flints that could be called artifacts were somewhat rare in com- 
parison. The patination was pronounced and the angles were 
often reduced by wear due to transport or use. If found in valley 
deposits these flints would easily pass for eoliths. The notched 
scraper or spoke-shave is the most common type (fig. 10). This 
old industry at La Combe resembles that in the lowest horizon at 




10. — Notched scrapers or spoke-shaves. Archaic Mousterian, 



La Micoque, but the specimens from La Micoque are not so worn. 
It resembles even more closely the lower layer in the classic station 
(upper terrace) of Le Moustier, the layer immediately below the 
level of the typical Mousterian points and side scrapers. At Le 
Moustier the worn condition of many of these archaic specimens is 



maccurdy] 



LA COMBE, A PALEOLITHIC CAVE 



161 



likewise to be noted. Breuil reports a similar industry from the 
base of the floor accumulations of the small entrance (the one not at 
present used) at Font-de-Gaume. The eolithic type of cave 
industry was also found by Rutot in the cavern of Fond-de-Foret, 
Belgium; and by Schmidt in the lowest culture-bearing layer at 
Sirgenstein, southern Germany. 





Fig. ii. — Utilized and retouched flint chips. Archaic Mousterian. (f) 



The race that left the Archaic Mousterian industry was either 
lazy and careless or else incapable of producing anything but in- 
different results in the way of chipping flint. The nodular crust 
shows on many of the specimens and a lack of method is manifest 
in the retouching or working of flint flakes (fig. n). The result 
is that the chipping often shows on the bulb or inner surface of the 
flake instead of the outer surface or back, where one would expect 
to find it. In some specimens one margin is chipped from the bulb 
side and the other from the back. Certain nodules from which 
flakes have been detached resemble rude Chellean forms (figs. 12 
and 13). These were found at the top of the Archaic Mousterian 
layer. One rude implement made from a quartzite pebble (fig. 14), 
the only one of its kind, was found near the base of the Archaic 
Mousterian deposit. The typical Mousterian side scraper and 
point as well as the coup de poing do not occur in the Archaic 
Mousterian layer (No. 2). In this lower layer were found curious 
points with thick squarish base (fig. 15). Here also was found a 
fragment of a large bone {Bison or Bos) that had seen extensive 



162 



AMERICAN ANTHROPOLOGIST 



[n. s., 16, 1914 



service as a chopping block or compressor (fig. 16). Utilized bones 
of this class first came into general notice 1 through the researches 
of Dr Henri Martin in the Mousterian of La Quina (Charente), 




Fig. 12. — Flint core resembling a rude Chellean implement. Archaic Mousterian. (-) 




Fig. 13. — Flint implement of pre-Chellean type. Archaic Mousterian. (f ) 



where they are very abundant. They have also been found by 
Pittard at a station in the valley of Les Rebieres (Dordogne), and 

1 Many years ago Dupont discovered utilized bones associated with Mousterian 
stone industry in the cave of Hastiere, Belgium. 






maccurdy] 



LA COMBE, A PALEOLITHIC CAVE 



163 



elsewhere by others. The bone compressors found by Martin and 
Pittard are however associated with upper Mousterian stone 





[ Fig. 14. — Rude quartzite implement. Archaic Mousterian. (f ) 





Fig. 15. — Archaic Mousterian points, (f ) 



industry characterized by the side scraper and the point. The 
specimen from La Combe came from the base of the Archaic 
Mousterian. After the termination of my work at La Combe I 



164 



AMERICAN ANTHROPOLOGIST 



[n. s., 16, 1914 



visited Professor Commont at Amiens and learned that he had 
recently found similar bone compressors in the gravel pit of Boutmy- 
Muchembled at Montieres, a suburb of Amiens. This pit is in 
the lowest or fourth (youngest) terrace. The utilized bone frag- 
ments were found in a whitish gravelly deposit below the recent 
loess and associated with Mousterian industry and a warm fauna. 
Commont believes the deposit to date from the Riss-Wurm inter- 
glacial epoch. Montieres and La Combe therefore would seem to 
prove that bone compressors were in use during the ancient archaic 
Mousterian phase. 

Typical Mousterian 

Immediately above the reddish sandy layer is a thick deposit 
of yellow clay, the lower half of which contains typical Mousterian 
industry and the upper half Aurignacian industry. There is no 
perceptible intervening sterile layer. 





Fig. 16. — Bone compres- 
sor. Archaic Mousterian. 
(I) 



Fig. 17. — Archaic Mousterian form from the 
base of the typical Mousterian layer, (f ) 



Near the base of the Mousterian proper one still encounters 
scattering specimens of the archaic types common to the layer of 
reddish sandy clay beneath (figs. 17 and 18). At the middle and 
upper Mousterian levels are found the classic side scraper (racloir) 



maccurdy] 



LA COMBE, A PALEOLITHIC CAVE 



l6 5 



and point, as well as a relatively large number of coups de poing, 
usually rather small and of the Acheulian type ; the largest of these 
has a maximum length of 12 c. and the smallest 4.8 c. The collec- 




-Archaic Mousterian type from the base of the typical 
Mousterian layer, (f ) 



tion from La Combe comprises some 30 coups de poing. This type 
of specimen is rare in the deposits of caves and rock shelters. In 
the great station of La Ferrassie (Dordogne) , for example, the finding 
of a coup de poing is an event of unusual importance. 

On the last day of our excavations and within a few minutes of 
closing time Berniche found one of the finest coups de poing that 
ever came from a paleolithic cave (fig. 19). It was found in situ 
at a depth of less than a meter from the surface. The specimen 
is intact; the flint is of excellent quality and from the heart of a 
nodule as indicated by the small bit of nodular surface (near the 
base), the plane of which is perpendicular to the plane of the length- 
and-breadth axis of the specimen. The work is done with a delicate 
sense of symmetry. The implement is more pointed than the typical 
limande of the valley deposits in northern France, resembling more 
in form and workmanship a late Acheulian implement found by 
O. Herman in 1906 at Miskolcz, Hungary. The Hungarian 
specimen is however considerably smaller than the one from La 
Combe. Within a few centimeters from the fine specimen we found 



1 66 



AMERICAN ANTHROPOLOGIST 



[n. s., 16, 1914 



another coup de poing, larger and of much cruder workmanship. 
The flint of which it was made was likewise of poorer quality. In 




Fig. 19. — Coup de poing from the typical Mousterian layer, (f ) 

the Mousterian layer were found flint drills and hammerstones of 
which figures 20 and 21 are good examples. The hammerstone is 
a water-worn quartzite pebble and is abraded at several points. 

In both the archaic and typical Mousterian horizons were found 
small, carefully selected, nearly spherical pebbles of which figure 
22- in a good example. The presence of these so-called balls, or 
spheroids, of which some were at least artificially shaped in part, 
has been noted in numerous deposits of Mousterian (and even pre- 
Mousterian) age. One of the first to mention them was de Roche- 
brune as early as 1866. Chauvet illustrates examples from the 
Charente and elsewhere. Martin reports the finding of 76 cal- 
careous spheroids at the Mousterian station of La Quina (Charente). 
At Les Robieres I, a Mousterian station in the Dordogne, Pittard 
found a curious association of balls in groups of three. The balls 
thus grouped were nearly always of quartzite. He also found 



maccurdy] 



LA COMBE, A PALEOLITHIC CAVE 



167 



calcareous spheroids, many of them pecked into shape. There are 
several theories regarding the use to which these stone balls were 
put. Were they gaming stones, or did they serve a more practical 





Fig. 20. — Flint drill. Typical 
Mousterian. (1/1) 



Fig. 21. — Hammerstone of quartzite from 
typical Mousterian layer, (§) 



purpose as sling-stones, or perhaps bolas similar to the weapon in 
use among the natives of the southern part of South America? 
Darwin describes two kinds of bolas. 
One consists of two round stones, 
covered with leather and united by a 
thong about eight feet long; the other 
kind has "three balls united by thongs 
to a common center." The finding 
by Pittard of these balls in groups of 
three favors the presumption that bolas 
of the triple-ball type were used by 
the Mousterians of western Europe. 
The bolas had been lost or laid aside 
intact, but the skin covering and unit- 
ing thongs have long since decayed, 
leaving the three balls in a tell-tale position. 




Fig. 22. — Selected pebble 
from the typical Mousterian 
layer, (f) 



168 



AMERICAN ANTHROPOLOGIST 



[n. s., 16, 1914 



AURIGNACIAN 

As has been said, there was no sterile layer separating the 
Mousterian horizon from the Aurignacian. The latter was the 




Fig. 24. — Side scraper from the typicalMousterian layer. (|) 

last paleolithic occupancy of the cave. There seem to be no types 
representing the earliest and latest phases of Aurignacian culture. 



maccurdy] 



LA COMBE, A PALEOLITHIC CAVE 



169 



The oldest distinct lithic type is the Chatelperron blade (fig. 25), 
which first made its appearance near the summit of the lower Aurig- 
nacian. On the whole the industry is typical or middle Aurignacian. 
The combination graver-perforator reproduced in figure 26 seems 






Fig. 25. — Chatelperron blades from the Aurignacian layer. (1/1) 



to be of an early type; but those represented in figure 2J are not 
earlier than the middle Aurignacian, and the lateral graver with 
notch (fig. 28) is even suggestive of the upper Aurignacian. Many 
splinter-like chips produced in the manufacture of gravers were 
found in the Aurignacian deposit. Implements of the type shown 
in figure 29 were rather common. One end of the blade-like flake 
is chipped to a point ; while the other is rounded by chipping to form 
an end scraper. The lateral margins are retouched. The working 
shows only on the outside of the flake. 

A remarkably fine flint blade (fig. 30) was found in a gently 
oblique position. It measures 15.2 c. in length and is made of a 
yellowish flint similar to the well-known "beeswax" flint of Pres- 
signy-le-Grand (Indre-et-Loire). The base is square. The right 



170 



AMERICAN ANTHROPOLOGIST 



[n. s., 16, 1914 




Fig. 26. — Combination 
graver-perforator. Aurig- 
nacian epoch. (1/1) 






Fig. 27. — Flint gravers. Aurignacian epoch. (|) 





Fig. 28. — Combination graver Fig. 29. — End scrapers. Aurignacian epoch. 
and spoke-shave. Aurignacian (f) 

epoch. (1/1) 



maccurdy] 



LA COMBE, A PALEOLITHIC CAVE 



I/I 



margin is retouched for its entire length, as is also the left margin 
for more than 2 c., thus giving to the blade a distinct point. The 
left margin is likewise retouched for a space of 4 c. beginning at 





Fig. 30. — Long pointed flint 
blade. Aurignacian epoch, (§) 



Fig. 31. — Flint knives. Aurignacian epoch, (f) 



the base. The only secondary working to be seen on the inner or 
nuclear face of the blade is on the left margin from 3 to 6 c. below 
the point. 

Flint knives similar to the larger one in figure 31 were common. 
Carinate scrapers (fig. 32) were comparatively rare. 

A number of crude hammerstones were found in the Aurignacian 
deposit. The quartz pebble reproduced in figure 33 is a good 



172 



AMERICAN ANTHROPOLOGIST 



[n. s., i6, 1914 



example. Slight abrasions centrally located on each side seem to 
indicate that this specimen might have served also as an anvil 
stone. A flat elongate pebble from a fine-grained crystalline 
igneous rock is one of the smallest anvil stones (fig. 34) found at 
La Combe. 

In comparison with the primitive Mousterians the Aurignacians 
were men of new ideas, practical as well as esthetic. In the early 





Fig. 32. — Carina te scrapers. Aurignacian epoch, (f) 



days of the science it was customary to speak of the two grand 
divisions of the Stone Age as the period of chipped stone implements 
and the period of polished stone implements. Later the terms 
paleolithic and neolithic came into general use, and fortunately so, 
since the terms formerly employed had become misnomers for two 
reasons. In the first place perhaps more than half of the neolithic 
stone implements were never polished; and secondly stone objects 
of undoubted paleolithic age bearing marks of the polishing process ' 
have been reported from various stations, including Les Eyzies, 
Laussel, La Ferrassie, and La Combe, to mention only the Dordogne. 



maccurdy] 



LA COMBE, A PALEOLITHIC CAVE 



173 



The art of polishing bone in paleolithic times is a phenomenon of 
common occurrence and need not enter into the discussion here. 
For some reason not easily explained it never occurred to any of 
the paleolithic races to polish flint implements. In fact the polishing 
process in paleolithic times, so far as stone is concerned, seems to 
have been wholly incidental and not a means to an end. The 





Fig. 33. — Hammerstone of quartz. Aurignacian 
epoch. (|) 



Fig. 34. — Pebble used as an anvil 
stone. Aurignacian epoch, (§) 



abrasions on a primitive hammerstone and anvil stone are the results 
of their use as such and not of their manufacture. This is likewise 
true of the polished facets on the upper and nether rubbing- or 
grind-stone ; and the constant polishing of bone needles would finally 
leave grooves in the stone on which the work was done. 

A fine example of the rubbing stone (fig. 35) was found in situ 
within the cave on the western side and at a depth of 50 c. from the 
surface of the cave deposit. It is a weathered, slightly flattened 
oval water-worn pebble from a rock of igneous origin. The op- 
posite sides are much reduced by polishing; the pebble had been 
extensively employed evidently as the upper or active rubbing 

AM. ANTir., N. S., l6-I2 



174 



AMERICAN ANTHROPOLOGIST 



[n. s., 16, 1914 



stone. In the center of each polished surface are two groups of 
scars. The pebble had therefore been used as an anvil stone or a 





Fig. 35. — Combination rubbing stone, Fig. 36. — Granite pebble that had served 

hammerstone, and anvil or chopping as a rubbing stone. Aurignacian epoch, 
block. Aurignacian epoch. (|) (|) 




Fig. 37. — Combination passive rubbing stone and chopping block. 
Aurignacian epoch. (^) 

chopping block. The battered ends and the bruised condition of 
one of the margins prove that the pebble had likewise functioned 



maccurdy] LA COMBE, A PALEOLITHIC CAVE I 75 

as a hammerstone. The relation of the contused to the polished 
surfaces establishes the fact that the implement had last served as 
a rubbing stone. A few weathered granite pebbles that had been 
employed as active rubbing stones were found. One of these is 
reproduced in figure 36. In figure 37 is represented a fragment of 
what must have been a rather large nether or passive rubbing stone. 
It has a thickness of 6 c. Both sides bear evidence of extensive 
wear. The piece was likewise employed as an anvil stone. It is a 
compact fine-grained granitoid rock. 

That paleolithic man was quick to seize upon objects in nature 
that bore a resemblance to some cherished or familiar form is at- 




Fig. 38.— -Peri orated effigy stone resembling a bird's head. 
From the Aurignacian layer. (\) 

tested by numerous examples dating from various epochs. There 
are in the firsl place the flints which fortuitously or otherwise 
resemble animal forms familiar to man. Examples may be found 




176 



AMERICAN ANTHROPOLOGIST 



[N. s., 16, 1914 



in almost any ancient gravel bed. They might well have attracted 
the attention of early man. Whether they did or did not is a 
question that has not yet been definitely answered. Whether a 
freak of nature may also be classed as a fetich depends entirely on 
human association. If found in a place of human habitation, and 
especially if nature's work has been supplemented in some unmis- 
takable way, all reasonable doubt is removed. For example, 
Pevronv found, in the Aurignacian layer at La Ferrassie, a flint 




y 







Fig. 39. — Bone point with cleft 
base. Aurignacian epoch, (f ) 



Fig. 40. — Bone polishers, 
epoch. (|) 



Aurignacian 



nodule bearing a marked resemblance to a human cranium with 
the two orbits, nasal bridges between, etc. In addition some of 
the asperities had been artificially removed, thus enhancing the 
likeness. Examples might be cited dating from times long sub- 
sequent to the paleolithic. For example, Flinders Petrie found in a 



maccurdy] 



LA COMBE, A PALEOLITHIC CAVE 



177 



prehistoric temple at Abydos ape figures in terra-cotta and ivory; 
also pieces of stone rudely blocked out to suggest baboons. With 
them was a single unworked flint nodule of suitable size and shape, 
which "seems to have been kept for its likeness to a baboon." In 
the Aurignacian layer at La Combe we found a calcareous rock 
roughly shaped like the head of a bird with short beak (fig. 38). 
The eye is represented by a perforation presumably natural and 
apparently rendered somewhat more shapely by artificial means. 
This piece would have made an excellent hammerstone, but it was 
evidently preserved for less prosaic uses. The original crust of 
the rock is everywhere intact except for a slight chip removed from 
the base of the neck. 




Fig. 41. — Piece of worked ivory. 
Aurignacian epoch, (f ) 



Fig. 42. — Perforated toe-bone of the rein- 
deer. Aurignacian epoch. (f) 



Implements of bone and horn were rare, there being but a single 
point with cleft base, typical of the beginning of the middle Aurig- 
nacian (fig. 39). Three bone polishers are shown in figure 40. The 
largest was evidently made from the rib of some large animal. 
Only one piece of ivory was encountered, an implement cut from 
near the center of the tusk (fig. 41). 

Among various phalanges of the reindeer one first phalanx of 



I78 AMERICAN ANTHROPOLOGIST [n. s., 16, 19 14 

the inner functional digit (III) of the right foot has a squarish and 
what seems to be an artificial perforation near the proximal end 
(fig. 42). 

The Aurignacians are known to have been a race of surprisingly 
artistic ability. And they accomplished what they did without a 
background of art inheritance; for their predecessors, the archaic 
Mousterians, left nothing that might be called art in the strict 
sense — only utilitarian artifacts. Any efforts they might have made 
along artistic lines were of a perishable nature and have completely 
disappeared. The presence of bits of ochre and oxide of manganese 
in deposits of Mousterian age at numerous stations suggests the 
practice of painting or tattooing the body; at all events the use of 
red and black coloring matter for purposes ceremonial, magical, 
ornamental, or otherwise; for many of the pieces were genuine 
crayons with worn facets. Peyrony reports the finding of mineral 
colors not only in the Mousterian layers at La Ferrassie, Pech de 
l'Aze, Tabaterie, and Combe-Capelle, but also in practically every 
Mousterian deposit excavated by him. It is possible therefore 
that the fine arts had their birth in man's love of color (as well as of 
form) and that the old Neanderthal race made at least a beginning 
in that field. Certain it is that the love of ornament is at least as 
old as, if not older than, the fine arts. 

At La Combe several fragments of ocher were found, especially 
in the Aurignacian level. The Aurignacians were in fact the first 
to leave a permanent record in the fields of sculpture, bas relief, 
engraving, and painting. It is a pity their robes and shields of 
bison skin could not have survived ; for both offered fitting surfaces 
for embellishment. No art objects, either portable or mural, 
were found at La Combe, but various ornaments were encountered. 
The canine of a stag with the root worked down on both sides and 
perforated, and with three tally marks on the side of the crown, is 
reproduced in figure 43. 

A large incisor of the stag is grooved near the end of the root 
(fig. 44). The dentine has been cut away in such manner as to 
leave a distinct shoulder in the direction of the root end only. In 
the end of the root there is the beginning of a conical perforation. 



maccurdy] 



LA COMBE, A PALEOLITHIC CAVE 



179 



Perforated animal teeth were quite extensively employed as a 
means of ornament during the upper paleolithic period. So far as 
I have been able to ascertain, no perforated human teeth have 
hitherto been reported from a European paleolithic cave. My 
surprise and satisfaction were both great, therefore, on finding one 
such tooth at La Combe. It is a large lower left first or second 







Fig. 43 . — Perforated 
canine tooth of the stag 
bearing tally marks. Au- 
rignacian epoch. (1/1) 



Fig. 44. — Grooved 
incisor of the stag. 
Aurignacian epoch. 
(1/1) 



Fig. 45. — Perforated human 
lower molar tooth. Aurignacian 
epoch. (1/1) 



molar with unusually large and spreading roots (fig. 45). On the 
front face of the anterior root is a conical hole that passes entirely 
through the root. The posterior root being in the way, no attempt 
was made to bore from the other side. It should be remembered 
that perforated teeth almost without exception have but a single 
root. Above and leading to the hole are a number of distinct 
incisions, and below the hole is a short gutter leading to the tip of 
of the root. The tooth has been submitted to a number of experts 
(A. Hrdlicka, J. W. Gidley, G. S. Miller, G. A. Dorsey, F. A. Lucas, 
W. D. Matthew, and Roy Andrews), all of whom agree that it is 
human. Dr F. C. Baldwin of New Haven, a dentist, is of the same 
opinion. He has extracted molar teeth as large as the one from 
La Combe and with roots perhaps equally spreading. 

While the use of human teeth as ornaments seems to have been 
very rare indeed among the paleolithic cave-dwellers of Europe, 
the practice was more common in the New World, especially in 
South America. Many human teeth with perforated or worked 



l8o AMERICAN ANTHROPOLOGIST [n. s., 16, 1914 

roots, evidently once serving as ornaments, were found at Sacsa- 
huaman, Peru, in 19 12, by the expedition in charge of Professor 
Hiram Bingham of Yale University. 

Parts of the human skeleton are known to have been adapted 
as objects of adornment or utility both in the Old World and the 
New. At the cave of Le Placard (Charente), M. de Maret found 
several cranial calottes that had been so fashioned as to serve as 
drinking cups. They are of Solutrean and Magdalenian age; some 
of them were recently published by Breuil and Obermaier. Small 
bone disks cut from the walls of the human cranium, some of them 
perforated for suspension, have been found in French stations dating 
from the neolithic period. 

In the Edwin Harness Mound of Ohio, Mr W. C. Mills gathered 
interesting data bearing on the use of the human jaw, both upper 
and lower, as an ornament. Examples of the lower jaw are more 
frequent than of the upper. A mandible with a perfect set of teeth 
was selected, the ascending rami broken away and a hole bored on 
each side of the symphysis. In one instance where three incisor 
teeth were missing, they had been replaced by incisors of the deer. 
The long roots of the deer incisors were cut off so that the teeth 
might fit properly in the human sockets. The ascending rami of 
this particular specimen were left intact save for notches cut near 
the neck, indicating that the jaw was suspended from this point. 
The coronoid process is also slightly worked, "and parts of the body 
of the jaw show polishing and cutting." The superior maxillary 
was converted into ornaments by cutting away the bone from the 
face well above the alveoles and leaving the palate intact. The 
posterior palatine canals served as perforations for the suspension 
of the jaw; these had been enlarged by boring. 

There was something in the white smooth enamel of teeth, both 
human and animal, that appealed to the primitive esthetic sense. 
It was no easy matter to make the perforations preliminary to the 
stringing or otherwise suspending. The teeth in situ reproduced in 
a measure the desired effect and removed the necessity of making 
the perforations. Hence the use of the jaw with its already strung 
teeth. The jaws of other animals, such as the mountain lion, black 



; 



maccurdy] LA COMBE, A PALEOLITHIC CAVE l8l 

bear, and wildcat, were used in the same manner. Since primitive 
races are not well versed in comparative anatomy, it is probable that 
parts of the human anatomy were employed sometimes unwittingly. 
The replacing of human incisors by deer incisors would seem to 
favor such a view. 

At the Roebuck site, eight miles from Prescott, Ontario, Mr 
Harlan I. Smith recently found both tools and ornaments made of 
human bone. The proximal half of a human ulna, for example, 
was converted into a bone punch. Several circular disks, some four 
inches in diameter and cut from the human cranium, were each 
perfprated in several places evidently in part at least for purposes 
of suspension. The site is thought by Smith to be Iroquoian. 

Among the most notable examples of appropriating human 
bones for decorative purposes were reported by Putnam and 
Willoughby from the Hopewell and Turner mounds in Ohio. The 
incised pattern on pieces of the human femur from the Hopewell 
mound and on an ulna from the Turner mound are elaborate and 
evidently of special symbolic as well as decorative import. 

The perforated teeth, including one human molar to which 
reference has already been made, prove that the art-loving Aurig- 
nacians were likewise fond of ornament. Pen- 
dants of bone and ivory, as well as perforated 
shells, were objects of personal adornment. 
So far as shells are concerned, both bivalves 
and univalves were employed, the latter how- 
ever predominating. The cave men used not Fig. 46— Perfor- 
only shells of existing species, but also fossil ated she11 of Arca - 
shells from the Miocene Faluns of Touraine. At (l ^ 
La Combe we found only one perforated shell of 
a bivalve, that of Arca (fig. 46). Of univalves we discovered 
more than a score. Some of these are in a fragmentary con- 
dition, so that it is not possible to say whether they had been 
perforated or not. They include Littor'um littoria (fig. 47), L. obtit- 
sata (fig. 48), Purpura lapillus (fig. 49), TurriUlla sp. (fig. 50), 
Nassa, and Natica\ all an- marine forms &\ idently brought from the 
Atlantic ocean more than [60 kilometers to the westward. Ac- 




AMERICAN ANTHROPOLOGIST 



[n. s., i6, 1914 



cording to Professor A. E. Verrill they resemble the forms still 
living in English waters of the North Sea. 1 The perforations are 







Fig. 47. — Perforated shells of Littorina 
littoria. Aurignacian epoch. (1/1) 



Fig. 48. — Perforated shells of Littorina 
obtusa. Aurignacian epoch. (1/1) 



usually round, some however are in the shape of slits made evidently 
by sawing back and forth (fig. 48). 

Some of the graves in the caves of Mentone are marked by a 
prodigality in the use of shell ornament. The skeleton found by 
Riviere in the cave of Cavillon was accompanied by perforated 
shells to a number exceeding 200 on the skull and 41 about the 






Fig. 49. — Perforated shells of Purpura I 
illus. Aurignacian epoch. (1/1) 



Fig. 50. — Perforated shell of Tur- 
ritella sp. Aurignacian epoch. (1/1) 



leg-bones just below the knee. Immediately over the skeleton 
of a child discovered by Riviere in the Grotte des Enfants were more 
than a thousand shells of Nassa neritea that had evidently been 
attached to a belt. The adornment of the men was even richer 
than that of the women, as noted by Verneau in the cave of Barma 
Grande. 

Recent Hearths 

Five recent hearths were encountered at La Combe. Two of 
these were outside the cave proper, two were just within the cave 

1 Deshayes had previously noted that L. littoria shells from Cro-Magnon resemble 
closley the same species now living in northern waters. 



maccurdy] LA COMBE, A PALEOLITHIC CAVE 1 83 

and underneath the stone wall placed there by the present pro- 
prietor, and one well within the cave. These hearths were all 
recognized by their black color and the loose disturbed condition 
of the deposit. In one were a few fragments of a very coarse- 
grained poorly fired kind of pottery, parts of at least two vessels. 
One of these has a thickness at the rim of 12 mm., the other 18 mm. 
The curvature proves that the vessels must have been of large 
size. Judging from the straight squarish finish at the rim the walls 
of the vessels must have been approximately vertical. They were 
left here in Gallo-Roman times by a barbaric race. The pottery 
from the other hearths is comparatively fine-grained, well-fired, and 
turned on the wheel. It represents types that were common from 
the III to the XI century a. D. 1 There are fragments of three 
vessels dating from the V or VI century. The walls are thin, the 
bottom flat, the sides rounding, with a body diameter much greater 
than that at the gracefully recurved rim. In one of the three there 
is a relief ornament on the shoulder produced by pressure of the 
finger-end against the interior. There is a quantity of iron rust 
on the rim of this particular sherd. In two of the hearths were 
fragments of large pitchers of terra-cotta ware. The short spouts 
are bridged at the rim, and the vertically placed loop handles are 
especially strong. This type belongs to the Middle Ages from the 
VIII to the XI century. 

Fauna 

The fauna 2 of the Archaic Mousterian includes the horse, Bos 
primigenius, Cervus elaphus, and Capra ibex. The first three of 
these recurred in the typical Mousterian, where we likewise found 
Ursus spelceus, Sus scrofa, Arctomys marmotta, and fox. The Aurig- 
nacian faunal remains comprise the wolf, Ursus spelceus, Cervus 
elaphus, Sus scrofa, Bos primigenius, Capra ibex, and reindeer. 

Conclusion 

In a summary of the results at La Combe two features si and 
out prominently: (1) The Archaic character of the oldesl industry 

1 Determination by M. Pages- Allary. 

2 For the greater part identified l>y Dr George F. Baton. 



. 



1 84 AMERICAN ANTHROPOLOGIST [n. s., 16, 1914 

represented by quantities of rude implements with eolithic facies; 
(2) the relative abundance of coups de poing in the typical Mousterian 
layer. In excavating this paleolithic cave the author had two 
purposes in view, both of which were realized. The lesser of these, 
the systematic gathering of an authentic collection, is by no means 
unimportant. The chief object was a personal test of the European 
system of paleolithic classification. The absence at La Combe 
of distinct alternating sterile layers increased the difficulties in the 
way of a clear-cut demonstration. To any one familiar with the 
problem, however, the sequence was unmistakable: Archaic Mous- 
terian, typical Mousterian, and Aurignacian. 

Any lingering doubt due to the obscurity of the conditions at 
La Combe was dispelled by personal tests made at other stations. 
One day was spent at the rock shelter of La Ferrassie (Dordogne) 
in company with Messrs Capitan and Peyrony , the lessees. There 
the sequence is visible at a glance, owing to the comparative dark- 
ness of the relic-bearing deposits. Beginning with the Acheulian, 
I found a coup de poing after five minutes' work with my steel 
hook. Later I gathered in turn typical specimens from the suc- 
cessive horizons — lower and upper Mousterian, and lower, middle, 
and upper Aurignacian. 

At the cave of Castillo, near Puente Viesgo, northern Spain, 
where I spent two weeks with Professor Obermaier (in charge of the 
excavations), the sequence is equally clear and even more com- 
prehensive. The section has a total thickness of about 13 meters 
composed of alternating sterile and relic-bearing layers, the latter 
numbering twelve. Beginning with the oldest, they are: three 
layers of Mousterian age, four Aurignacian, one Solutrean, two 
Magdalenian, one Azilian, and one eneolithic, the last representing 
the transition from the neolithic to the age of metals. It will thus 
be seen that in a single station there is represented nearly the entire 
system of a classification, which is likewise justified by a comparar 
tive study of many stations. 

Yale University 

New Haven, Connecticut 



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